I'm not really interested in debating with an obvious troll. Show me where I told the OP to not follow the advice of a medical practitioner or STFU.

I never accused you of saying that. In fact I haven’t even accused you of saying anything incorrect, except for suggesting that it is perhaps idiotic to use Google to self-diagnose. What I am accusing you of is making lousy arguments, even if some of your conclusions happen to be correct. I don’t pretend to have any knowledge of whether “Bromelain” is anti-inflammatory or not—I am not saying that you are wrong about that—in fact I have no idea whatsoever. (If, however, you’d made a case for it, I would have an idea. As it is, I don’t see that you’ve given anyone any reason to think that you are right.)

When I offer advice, in forum threads or otherwise, I try to offer helpful meaningful advice, the kind I would follow myself. In order to be helpful it must be correct. In order to be meaningful, it must be solid enough to be taken seriously. In order for me to take anything seriously, it needs to come from a credible expert and/or be backed up by credible data.

Since you show contempt for the very idea of backing your claims up, I’d say that ipso facto disqualifies you as a credible or useful source of advice.

Firstly, the OP was already diagnosed with Bornholme's, hence the fucking thread title. Nowhere have I said that people should self diagnose with Google, I have suggested they use Google to find additional information on their medical condition (after diagnosis) and run this by their medical practitioner. Nice try though.

So I understand the only advice I gave that you have issue with is the pineapple. Alright ignoring the fact I was using it as an example that certain foods may be beneficial to certain medical conditions (In this case for joint inflammation and I thought it may have some benefits for other types of inflammation; which as it turns out possibly does), here are some links of interest:

I don't really want to do a Google search and wade through and select specific medical research papers for offering conservative, generic advice which to me is really common sense. Would you also want links posted for research that disproves or does not confirm that pineapple has anti-inflamatory properties? I don't have Bornholmes, so it is up to the OP to do the research. Hopefully, he gets some benefit out of this thread. FYI, I actually heard the pineapple thing from a trusted GP, ironically.

Do you really want me to post links to medical papers for saying that the eating fruit and vegetables are good for you? My five year old nephew can tell me this. Where do you draw the line?

For some reason I didn't get emails about the new responses to this thread.

Thanks for the responses. I rarely post asking for advice about medical conditions because the usual (and admittedly sensible) response is to see a doctor. In this case, though, I've already seen two different doctors for a total of four appointments, and all they say is "Try to stay healthy, and give it time".

I think I eat pretty healthily, but I'm on the road a lot, and when you're attending conferences where thousands of people are crammed into a tiny venue with buffet food for a few days, it's hard to avoid catching colds. I'm starting to get a little obsessive about using hand sanitizer, and that seems to be helping.

I posted in the hopes of finding someone else who had the same condition (I think I was looking for a "Yeah, it sucks, I had it for eight months, but it did get better, I'm doing BJJ again now!"), but I appreciate any suggestions.

Petter - I appreciate your concern (and understand your comments are important for other people that may read the thread later if they have similar symptoms), however I read mrh80's comments a little differently to you. If someone had posted saying "I have these horrid chest pains that won't go away", then google+pineapple would be a dangerous suggestion, but in my case I'm seeing a doctor, and the doctor admits they're not sure what will help. They reckon exercising won't do any harm, but can't say why I'm not better yet. Pineapples and more veggies might not make a difference, but I doubt they'll do any harm.

I've got another appointment with the doctor for Tuesday. If they still say "give it time", I think I'll ask to see a different doc - there's one at the practice that's considered to be a sports specialist. Unfortunately he's really popular so the waiting times to get an appointment with him are huge.

Thanks again.

Edited to add: I don't know why I added "juice" to the pineapple suggestion (except perhaps because I like pure fruit juice and it's easy to buy over here). My mistake. At this point I'm open to foods that might help recovery (in conjunction with proper medication), though.

Last edited by etali; 4/01/2012 5:18pm at .
Reason: just editing for clarity